a. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to a family of positioning sensors for a medical device and a method for mounting an electromagnetic positioning sensor on a medical device to avoid potential damage due to compression and tension forces and the like.
b. Background Art
Various diagnostic and therapeutic procedures in or on the body of a patient, such as in the heart or elsewhere in the circulatory system, can be performed or facilitated by inserting an electrophysiology (EP) catheter into a body lumen and thereafter navigating the diagnostic or therapeutic EP catheter to the target anatomical site. The EP catheter can include one or more electrodes to be used for therapeutic (e.g., ablation), diagnostic, or other purposes.
For certain procedures, it is desirable for the distal end of an EP catheter to have a particular curve or shape or to include uni- or bi-directional deflection elements, for example. For example, some ablation or mapping procedures on certain portions of the heart or the vasculature around the heart, such as the superior pulmonary vein, can be simplified through the use of an EP catheter having a lariat or spiral shape on its distal end. In order to achieve the desired shape, an EP catheter can incorporate one or more shape wires that can be preformed to the desired shape, deformed (e.g., via loading) to guide the catheter to the target anatomical site, then unloaded such that the shape wire—and thus the catheter—returns to the preformed desired shape.
It is also known to configure straight EP catheters (i.e., without shape wires) to include one or more electromagnetic field (position) sensors for navigating the catheter to the target anatomical site. While enabling sensor-based navigation functionality, a straight EP catheter as described above does not have the same applicability to certain EP procedures as does a shaped EP catheter.
There is therefore a need for a catheter that incorporates a shape wire and one or more electromagnetic position sensors that minimizes or eliminates one or more of the problems set forth above.